While people spent Saturday digging out from the 28.7 inches of snow that fell in the city, many could find themselves having to do more clearing today.

And it isn't because more snow is expected.

Instead, snowplow crews will be back to work this morning to begin the second phase of the city's snow-removal effort — a full-scale “clean-up” operation, which will include scraping streets to the pavement, widening streets and clearing all intersections and corners of high snow piles that obstruct the vision of motorists.

In doing so, City Manager Michel V. O'Brien said it is likely that private driveways, sidewalks and parking lot entrances that were opened and cleared of snow Saturday could very well have snow pushed back on to them today.

He acknowledges that could draw the ire of many of many folks.

“This is a multi-phased operation which will likely take well into next week to complete,” the manager said. “Our crews have been working around the clock to keep our streets open and passable. I'm very pleased with the job they have done to this point. To be able to move this kind of snow and keep our streets open is a tribute to their skills.

“I feel we're at a great place to be at this junction, but we've still got a long way to go. While our streets are open and passable, they are nowhere near where they need to be. (Sunday) will be a big day for us because we can concentrate on scraping the snow off the streets and making them wider.

“We really need to get the snow pack off the streets and make them wider so they are clear curb-to-curb; you never know what Mother Nature might throw at us next. I realize a lot of people might get frustrated if their driveways are blocked again or if snow is pushed backed on to their cleared sidewalks. Many people probably think we're all done with our work, but we actually still have a lot of work ahead of us. We ask the public for its patience on this,” he added.

The city's customer service center will be open all day today to field calls from residents at (508) 929-1300.

The city deployed more than 400 pieces of municipal and privately owned snow-removal equipment to keep the more than 500 miles of public and private streets in Worcester open and passable.

After being on the road for nearly 36 hours, Mr. O'Brien said the crews were taken off the road by early Saturday evening so they could get some rest before hitting the streets again this morning.

He said once the streets are scraped and widened today, sanding and salting operations will commence.

“Worcester will be open for business on Monday,” Mr. O'Brien said. “Our streets will be ready.”

The manager spent late Saturday afternoon driving around the city inspecting streets in various neighborhoods.

While generally pleased with the condition of the main arteries and most of the secondary roads, he said a concerted effort will have to be made today to clear snow from many residential streets — which, while passable, still had a lot of snow on them.

On Military Road, for instance, children were able to sled down the street because it was so snow-covered.

Also, Mr. O'Brien said many inner-city residential streets are too narrow because parking is allowed on one side of the street during snowstorms. Compounding the problem is the fact that as people dug out their cars Saturday from being plowed in, many simply threw the snow out into the streets.

The city's notorious hills also proved a challenge for public safety personnel during the height of the storm. Mr. O'Brien said the city took up the governor's offer to have the National Guard assist ambulances by having Humvee vehicles follow behind them on calls.

Because of their design, the manager said some ambulances were unable to make it up some of the more hilly streets. When they were unable to go any farther, he said, the EMS crews got out of their ambulance and were driven the rest of the way to their call in the Humvee.

The person being treated was then transported in the Humvee to the ambulance, transferred into that vehicle and then taken to the hospital.

Unlike the Blizzard of 1978, when many city streets were left impassable for a few days, Mr. O'Brien said city crews were pretty much able to stay ahead of this storm and keep streets open because of its timing.

He said the fact that it occurred heading into the weekend, along with schools being closed for the day and many businesses either choosing not to open or letting their employees out earlier, were all significant factors in giving city snow-removal crews a fighting chance in keeping ahead of the storm.

The manager also credited Gov. Deval L. Patrick for having the foresight to ban travel during the height of the storm.